ACS is Continuing to Fight Attacks on Legal Community and Rule of Law. Join Us.

Next week will mark 100 days since the new administration took office. In that time, it has issued executive order after executive order designed to dismantle our democratic institutions, undercut our rights, chill our speech, and seek retribution against those who oppose its actions.

I encourage you to listen to the April 29 Broken Law Podcast, which will feature ACS Program staff discussing the actions and impact of the administration’s first three months in office.

Part of that discussion will focus on the administration’s ongoing attack on our legal profession. No fewer than five executive orders have been issued against law firms and lawyers that have represented politically disfavored clients or expressed politically disfavored opinions and a memorandum directing the U.S. Attorney General to seek sanctions against and investigate law firms and lawyers who litigate or have litigated against the United States over the last eight years. The orders and memorandum contain unfounded claims that these firms and lawyers engage in “frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation.”

The American Constitution Society has always worked to ensure that the law is a means to improve people’s lives. Executive actions that target lawyers for zealous representation threaten that mission. Faced with the overwhelming power of the federal government, it is no surprise—though it is a huge disappointment—that some lawyers and law firms would capitulate to the administration’s demands to avoid government reprisal.

ACS supports our colleagues who have been targeted by the President and is committed to fight against attacks that are designed to intimidate and strip us, all of us, of our most cherished rights: free speech, due process, the right to redress our grievances to the government, and our very constitutional order.

Here’s what ACS is doing to counter these threats to our profession and the rule of law:

• We are raising our voices: The American Constitution Society, our network, legal scholars and others have condemned the Trump administration's use of executive orders to target law firms and lawyers. ACS issued a statement criticizing the actions and has also published calls by legal community members that encourage lawyers, law school deans and others to speak out against the executive orders. The ACS network has actively denounced the orders in news articles, Op Eds, letters to the editor and on social media.
• We are taking action: ACS coordinated a letter from over 1,000 law scholars denouncing the President’s illegal and unconstitutional executive orders and is organizing a soon to be released letter from law students calling on the legal community to stand up and defend the rule of law. ACS is also proud to have signed a letter coordinated by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in which we pledge to stand up against the administration’s attempts to strip us of our rights and silence us. ACS signed on to a letter coordinated by Democracy Forward that calls on U.S. Attorney General Bondi “to preserve and protect the independence and integrity of the legal profession, including opposing the use of the federal government to attack lawyers, law firms, and legal organizations for engaging in good faith representation of their clients.” We also have activated our network, sharing information out about several amicus briefs and letter sign-ons.
• We are creating spaces to share information and ideas: ACS has long been a convener of ideas and continues to share legal analysis, insights and solutions with our network. At the national level, we have hosted publicly accessible webinars, podcast episodes, and social media explainers on topics ranging from immigration to the legitimacy of state courts, and from the legal future and importance of DEI work to litigating DOGE’s actions and attacks on academia. We have also organized private convenings where our network members can share ideas with each other. Our student and lawyer chapters continue to coordinate outstanding programming, serving as a source for progressive organizing and community building in communities across the country. In March alone, chapters hosted over 100 events, covering the state of government agencies, Trump’s executive orders, state courts and state legislatures, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration law, reproductive justice, labor organizing, voting rights, criminal justice, DEI and the law, indigenous rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, technology, climate change and more.
• We are organizing to help those in need: As more federal employees are forced to leave government service, ACS is helping by connecting our affected network members with possible employment opportunities. We also are working with a coalition of groups led by the AFL-CIO, the Union Lawyers Alliance, and We The Action to provide legal help to federal employees facing adverse employment actions. The project, called the Federal Workers Legal Defense Network, has hosted trainings for volunteer lawyers. More than 1,000 lawyers have participated in trainings so far and ACS is actively recruiting more volunteers.

The administration’s current attacks are trial balloons foreshadowing much broader actions. If successful, these actions will have devastating consequences for our democracy and all of us. ACS will continue to fight, and we ask that you join us and help us keep building the legal network we need to stand up to the administration’s threats now and organize long-term for a legal system that will improve people’s lives.

Equality and Liberty, Rule of Law